Dallas police shoot dog that attacked 2 people trying to feed it in east Oak Cliff

A man and woman had gone to a home in the 2900 block of Ramsey Avenue to feed a female dog and its puppy, and the dog became aggressive.

Dallas police shot a dog Wednesday morning after it attacked two people in east Oak Cliff.

A man and woman had gone to a home in the 2900 block of Ramsey Avenue, near East Brownlee Avenue, to feed a female dog and its puppy, Senior Cpl. Tramese Jones, a police spokeswoman, told KDFW-TV (Channel 4).

The dog, a pit bull, began attacking the pair. The man escaped, but the woman was trapped with the dog for about half an hour.

Police who responded around 8 a.m. had to shoot the dog to get it to stop mauling the woman, Jones said.

Neighbors told Channel 4 that the woman was seriously injured and had injuries that could require amputation.

The dog was not expected to survive its injuries.

Police said no one has been cited because the dogs were confined at the home.

A loose-dog problem that has long plagued southern Dallas came to a head earlier this year when a pack of dogs fatally mauled 52-year-old Antoinette Brown.

mobile-only dfpPosition1

That attack led to big changes at Dallas Animal Services, with Deputy Police Chief Rob Sherwin assigned to lead the shelter and animal control. Last week, Sherwin was named the new police chief in Forney.

A study this summer by the Boston Consulting Group found that nearly 9,000 dogs roam the streets of largely poor southern Dallas — and the number of dog bites has increased 15 percent a year since 2013.

A city audit released this week found that Dallas' program for aggressive dogs was ineffective, with just 1.5 percent of dog bites leading to dangerous-dog affidavits. Bite victims said they wanted to avoid conflict with the dog's owner or feared retaliation.

Tom Steele, Breaking News Producer. Tom has covered breaking news for The Dallas Morning News since 2016. He has worked in a number of other capacities for The News since 2007, and he was previously a copy editor at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla. He has degrees in journalism and economics from Lehigh University.